Helena - Part 3 - The Treehouse

Before I move on to the rest of the trip, I wanted to post the picture's of Calvin's Treehouse. Hopefully my engineering friends will especially enjoy this. Calvin is a friend of Rudy and Linda's, and a fascinating, clever, and funny man. And he has a vision.


The treehouse (below) was the beginning of the project. Later he added on the center building which has a bathroom and shower. The newest building (to the right) is "Garage-majal." He's got a workshop downstairs and a kitchen, living room, and a couple of small bedrooms upstairs. It's a really cool place. The inside has the same attention to detail you'll see on the outside, but I'm going crazy with the pictures as it is.

I wanted to show how the treehouse was built, because it's really a clever design. The house is built on a platform which is bolted into the tree. If you look closely, you'll notice a truck hitch bears the load.

Above you'll see a chain which provides a redundant attachment. This is a close-up of the attached plate which was bolted into the tree.

You may have noticed from the first picture the hillside was completely ravaged by a huge forest fire about 4-5 years back now. Firefighters were able to save his place. They left him a note which hangs framed in the treehouse.

Calvin is a lover of worn but useful things. When he buys chains he's notorious for throwing them in fires to 'burn the shiny off," that is, the galvanized coating which keeps them from rusting. This truck might look like a decoration, but he uses it often.

One of the trees that was saved and a bell that I'm guessing was made from a pressurized gas tank.

Calvin requires a well stocked junk pile (treasure pile?) to make such things.

Here's Calvin demonstrating the trebuchet he made. Any man worth his salt should have a trebuchet. This picture is also special because it documents the second or third time I've ever seen my dad drink a "cheap" beer. He stays to the import/craft beer end of the spectrum, or as Calvin would call: "Showoff beer." It's shameful how many great expressions I've stolen from Calvin... it's like Mark Twain meets Red Green kind of wisdom.